It’s not that we have low expectations from Neff, because that’s not it. We just always thought of them as a beanie and t-shirt company, yet, they continue to come up with stuff that seriously looks cool. Like these knitted headphones. We’re not going to wear them, but there is no doubt that they are cooler than shit.
A press release sent out yesterday titled 86 Companies Will Make Their Debut At The Snow Show by SIA talks about how many new companies are involved in the Denver show and SIA President David Ingemie is ecstatic.
“New companies take risks and provide the retailers with fresh ideas and excitement – they shake it up and keep things interesting year after year,” said David Ingemie, president of SIA.
So who are the “new” companies that SIA is so excited about? Some of those listed as “new companies” include Skiand Skiing Magazine (aka Bonnier Mountain Group), Briko North America, Kastle, Kneissl, Swivler, and Vans. All of whom have attended the show numerous times before. Debut?
We emailed Anovia Daniels, Communications and Public Relations Manager for SIA, so we could better understand the press release and she explained: “Many of them are brand new and some are companies that have revamped themselves and come back to the Show. None of the exhibitors were at the Show last year.”
Right. So there aren’t actually “86 new companies” making their debut at the show and the headline is for all practical purposes an complete lie, which may explain the “others are circling back” subhead. Damn those marketing people. [click to continue…]
What kind of weird voodoo economics are going on at The Buckle? While most other mall stores’ sales are chomping down on gobs of sun-blanched feces, The Buckle is reporting that their Q3 profits rose 15 percent “on higher online sales and sales at stores open more than a year, according to BusinessWeek.
For the quarter ended Oct. 31, The Buckle earned $33.3 million, or 71 cents per share, compared with $29.1 million, or 62 cents per share, for the same quarter last year. . . Revenue rose 10 percent to $231.2 million from $210.6 million a year ago.
Having visited a few of Buckle stores we can honestly say we’re at a loss to understand what they are doing differently from PacSun and Zumiez, especially since they are in the same malls, with similar product, often directly across the room from each other. . . weird. Maybe Affliction and Aqua VI are pulling them through.
But what are the qualifications for a shop to be saved by the Unified Berrics? Is it the amount of work they’ve put into grassroots events? Is it proof that the owners actually skate? Is it a lifelong dedication to the culture of skateboarding? No it’s anywhere from 1440 to 5280 dollars. . . . Yes, as Exit Skateshop has pointed out via Twitter, what Berra forgot to mention was that the completely altruistic system that is the Unified Berrics is actually just a 12 month contract to have your skateshop advertised on The Berrics.
OC retailers rejoice. There’s a Sanuk company store coming just in time for the holidays. Then it will go away.
Sanuk sandals has reportedly opened a temporary shop in the OC’s Downtown Disney according to a story in theOC Register.
Sanuk, an Irvine-based footwear company, is scheduled to open a temporary location on Friday, said Suzi Brown, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman. The casual store is scheduled to close in mid January.
Just think if all the brands opened pop-up stores for the holidays. . . as if it isn’t hard enough out there.
Witness Steve Berra’s tear-jerkingly earnest discussion of the Berrics Unified skateboard shop seal of approval program. Which is not to say we disagree with anything Steve has to say. As one PR executive mentioned to us: “Passion is a great weapon.”
If that’s true, this little video is a “firing AK-47.”
It seems like somewhere along the line skateboard media kind of forgot what their purpose was. Luckily, Steve Berra and Eric Koston were there to blend their knowledge of skateboarding and Hollywood pop culture connections with a little technology to turn the entire skateboard media game upside down with The Berrics.
What began as coverage for their skate warehouse in downtown LA turned into the largest skateboarding media site in the world with a reported 6 million visitors viewing 20 million pages of content each month, according to an interview on Malakye.
Berra explains:
The consumer is not the jaded skateboarder who hates everything and everyone and tries his hardest to get everyone else to feel the same way he does. This person is a slight, slight minority, but wreaks the most havoc for brands and skaters because these brands and skaters tend to think it’s a majority opinion when it’s not. The majority of the skaters out there are excited about skateboarding and professional skateboarders. They don’t hate everything and everyone. I know because I get thousands and thousands of emails and I read every single one and I know what they’re like and I know what they’re saying, probably more than anyone in skateboarding, just because I’ve taken the time out to really listen. I think as a result of this, we’ve seen fantastic growth. I also try not to use the word kid because they are skaters, just like I am, and I think sometimes people use the word kid as a derogatory term. I remember being 13 and not appreciating being called a kid, despite being one.
Tony Hawk has been out on the road for the past couple days rolling out his newest video game Tony Hawk: Ride and its wireless skate deck controller. One of the places he stopped as at the Wall Street Journal in NYC where he ran into our favorite WSJ writer Conor Dougherty for an interview.
How does Tony think core skateboarders are going to respond to the game (which arrived in stores today)?
I think that if skaters just take an approach that this is a fun way to experience something else, then they’ll enjoy it. If they get on it and expect to do skateboard tricks, that’s not the approach. The movements that set your character into play are very subtle. Like an ollie [the basic skateboard jump] just takes a little kick up. A kickflip [where the board flips over] takes just a little kick up and twist to one side. In that sense, you can do more because it doesn’t take as much effort. But if skaters approach it like they really are skating, it won’t be as fun.
While resort buying and selling seems to be an endless Ponzi scheme where no one ever really comes out ahead it is worth mentioning that today Intrawest announced that it is selling Copper Mountain to the Park City, Utah based Powdr Corp.
The transaction is anticipated to close in December 2009 and the agreement is subject to regulatory approvals including the issuance of a U.S. Forest Service special-use permit to Powdr Corp.
When a post on the Ashbury Eyewear site featuring Kr3w’s new snowboard team started a blazing 114 comment flame war between people claiming to be from Comune, Ashbury, and Kr3w it did more than waste time for everyone involved. It sent one more reminder to other companies that what their employees post online from work can come back to bite them.
In the comments the Ashbury Eyewear site admin eventually exposed all the posts that were coming from what they believed was Comune’s IP address. A similar thing happened last month when Yobeat.com’s Jared Souney called out Burton employees for posting anonymously to the Yobeat.com comments.
This debacle caused at least one manager to take action. “After I saw those comments I seriously sent an email to my staff telling them not to do shit like that,” one company executive told us. “With online you always have to try and stay one step ahead on shit like that. Employees can screw things up without even realizing they’re doing it.”
Most employees understand that whenever they speak, they’re in some ways “speaking for the company,” but with social media taking over it becomes more important that ever to remember that what is Tweeted, facebooked, myspaced, or posted to comment boards has a far larger audience than just talking shit between friends at an after party.
It’s not all downside, however. Conflicts are great for traffic and we’re guessing this feud probably ended up helping Ashbury get more traffic than they’ve had in a while.
It’s not that we have low expectations from Neff, because that’s not it. We just always thought of them as a beanie and t-shirt company, yet, they continue to come up with stuff that seriously looks cool. Like these knitted headphones. We’re not going to wear them, but there is no doubt that they are cooler than shit.
